Friday, 29 April 2016

This year the Grim Reaper is, it seems, intent on populating
his own light entertainment cast. Only last week we lost the supreme writer and
comedienne Victoria Wood. Best known, of course, for her TV work I've had a look at her radio appearances on the BBCGenome website.

Victoria never did have her own radio series and most of her
broadcasts are guest appearances often singing her comic songs. Her first broadcast,
at least on national radio, was a 1977 edition of Comedy Parade featuring Rob Buckman (at the time best known for
YTV's Don't Ask Me working alongside
Dr Magnus Pyke) and Chris Beetles. She appeared again with Rob Buckman five
years later in Get the Most Out of Your
Body. She popped up on Start the Week
and Midweek and as a panellist on Just a MInute. Her only other panel game
was I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue in
2009.

In the mid to late 1980s Victoria was heard reading stories
for children on Listening Corner and Cat's Whiskers. She was a castaway on Desert Island Discs in 1987 and again in
2007 and guested on Woman's Hour and Kaleidoscope. In 2005 she wrote a spoof version of The Archers for Comic Relief.

But the piece of archive I've dug out is one of her
appearances on the Radio 2 comedy The Little
and Large Party. As far as I know this show hasn't had a repeat since its
first broadcast in 1981 so it's a bit of a rarity. It was Little and Large's
only radio series and for each of the eight shows Victoria provided a comic
song. In this, the first episode of the series, she recalls her school days
with the wireless on.

Thursday, 28 April 2016

BBC Radio Norfolk boss and regular presenter of Treasure Quest - a mad dash around the
county by car in search of clues but without the Anneka Rice jumpsuit - has
retired after 35 years at the station.

David Clayton stood down as Editor last month and presented
his final Treasure Quest last Sunday.
Whilst not part of the Radio Norfolk launch team in September 1980 he started
to guest as a showbiz expert and appeared on Juke Box Jury before being offered a Sunday breakfast slot in 1981.
In 1983 he moved to a weekday mid-morning show, The Norfolk Airline, co-presenting with Neil Walker. They won a
Sony in 1986 for Best Magazine Programme before graduating to national radio on
Radio 4's The Local Network
(1987-91).

In The Local Network
David and Neil linked up with "BBC
Local Radio stations to investigate issues of common concern around the country"
covering everything from tourism and bridge tolls to puddings and pools winners. Years later there
was a long-standing joke at Radio Norfolk that David would often claim "I
once made a programme about that for Radio 4", much the way that Uncle
Albert would preface his "during the war" anecdotes.

A Radio Times
article introducing the new 1987 series of The
Local Network described the duo as the 'Timpson and Redhead' of Radio
Norfolk. "Some people define it as chemistry and that's the basis of all
good double acts", said David. "But it may have something to do with
the fact that we have very little in common and rarely meet off the air."

Also broadcasting from Norwich David briefly appeared as an
in-vision announcer on Anglia TV and read the news on Look East for several years in the mid-80s. He also co-presented,
again with Neil Walker, two short series for Radio 4 called Today's the Day (1990-92) that sought to
"explore extraordinary days in people's lives".

Returning to Radio Norfolk in 1991 he was first Programme Organiser
(what would now be called an Assistant Editor) and then Managing Editor in
1998. Although now management he still couldn't be prised away from the studio
and continued to appear on air, usually on Sundays. When Treasure Quest started in 2008 David took over the 'Kenneth
Kendall' style role

David had a big on-air send-off last Sunday inGoodbye to all that. The previous week
one of those The Local Network shows
got an airing. Last heard on Radio 4 in February 1988 it investigated regional
differences in comedy. It's still online here.

You can hear another edition of The Local Network that I posted in 2012 here.

My thanks to Paul Hayes, aka The Questmaster, at BBC Radio
Norfolk for his help with this post.

Monday, 11 April 2016

Bob Harris celebrates his 70th birthday today. Music-loving
Bob has always carefully crafted his radio shows and championed the cause of
many musicians. This was more than evident in this weekend's Radio 2 show - for
some mad reason tucked away at 3 a.m.

Back in October 1972 Bob was interviewed for the new
magazine Deejay and Radio Monthly and
recalled how he got his break into radio.

He'd been playing records as part of an experimental evening
at the Royal College of Art and four months later was interviewing Radio 1
producer Jeff Griffin for Friends
magazine. Jeff "remembered this thing at the Royal College, talked to me
about it and asked me to do a pilot show for Radio Three".

"I took the list of records and ran with Jeff through
the way I'd presented them - so in fact the pilot I did was based on the
programme I'd done at the College. We directed it at Radio Three initially
because Jeff thought it might be a little heavy going for Radio One - but in
fact they were at the time already running a pop music series, and they never
run two simultaneously. So Jeff re-directed it to Radio One - not as a
programme idea, but as an illustration of what I could do."

The BBC liked what they heard and Bob was offered holiday
relief for John Peel in August and September 1970. This is his first Radio Times billing (via BBC Genome).
The following month, following the departure of David Symonds, Bob was offered
the Monday night edition of Sounds of the
70s.

Bob, now also presenting The Old Grey Whistle Test, left
Radio 1 in 1975. Controller Derek Chinnery "didn't much like the kind of
music we features on Sounds of the 70s". In fact the station was having to
trim back its broadcasting hours as part of a round of yet another financial
belt-tightening. After that Bob recorded some shows for Radio Luxembourg but
wasn't regualarly back on air until 1978 when he joined Radio 210.

Keen to return to the Corporation Bob accepted a drive
time job with Radio Oxford in 1981. By the mid-80s he was also appearing on
LBC, Radio West and Radio Broadland, BFBS and The Super Station. In 1989 he was
finally back at Radio 1 when executive producer Stuart Grundy invited him to
sit in for Richard Skinner; he gained a regular Sunday night show the following
January following the death of Roger Scott.

Later in 1990 Bob's finally secured a daily show kicking off
at midnight, following Nicky's Campbell's Into
the Night. Three years later,
following a "repositioning" of the network, he was back out the door.
Here is a large chunk of that final Radio 1 show from the early hours of Friday
22 October 1993. And if you don't already know Bob's final record you'd never
guess it.Part 1

Part 2

Bob secured more work with BFBS as well as regular shows on
GLR. It was Jim Moir who invited Bob back to national radio with a Saturday
night show on Radio 2 starting in 1997. He's been there ever since, adding Bob Harris Country in 1999.

Monday, 4 April 2016

In March radio station launches were like buses, nothing for
months and then a handful came along all at once. These new stations were part
of the Sound Digital DAB multiplex, a joint venture company owned by The
Wireless Group, Bauer and Arqiva.

The new offerings from Bauer were brand extensions of Magic:
Mellow Magic and Magic Chilled. First out of the blocks on 14 March was Mellow
Magic, "carefully programmed to provide a relaxed and laid back
station" aimed at the 50 to 64 age group. Existing Magic DJs Paul Hayes,
Gary Vincent and Martin Collins are joined by the station-hopping Lynn Parsons,
Forth 1's Arlene Stuart and actors Patsy Kensit and John Hannah. The station
also offers the chance to hear former BBC staffers Fran Godfrey and Alice
Arnold. Indeed it was a welcome opportunity to hear Fran, one of Radio 2's
best, and much missed, newsreaders reading the news again on the weekday
breakfast show - the only live show.

On the face of it there's little here that listeners can't
get from Magic, the City 2 network or Smooth. The licence application suggests
that the evening programmes may see a return of Saga Radio-type shows but,
based on my admittedly brief review of one night's listening it was more of the
same classic pop with a Billie Holiday track thrown in for good measure.

Magic Chilled - one of the stations on DAB+ as well as
online - promises "a contemporary music escape with a playlist featuring
fresh laidback hits". Although it lists an all female presenter line-up -
Jade Ewen, Sarah Champion, Pips Taylor, Eloise Carr and Louise Molony - the
links are all pre-recorded and kept to a minimum, every 3 or 4 records. So laid
back was Chilled that it didn't really launch on 21 March as such; the test
transmissions segued seamlessly into a breakfast sequence and then Jade Ewen's
links from 10 am.

Launched with far more sense of occasion, and offering
something new, certainly for commercial radio, were The Wireless Group's talkSPORT2
and talkRADIO. Going to air on 15 March, just in time for the Cheltenham
Festival, was talkSPORT's sister station with sports coverage that wasn't just
football-focused: racing, cricket (there's been extensive coverage of the World
Twenty20), rugby, tennis, golf and athletics, so offering some alternative to 5
Live Extra. In this montage there's actor Lewis MacLeod (Dead Ringers and Wired News) declaiming "the
prodigal son is ready". There's also talkSPORT2's Managing Editor Mike
Bovill and the opening introduction from Ian Danter.

talkSPORT2 benefited from cross-promotion from talkSPORT,
the two stations share some programming anyway as there's not quite enough
other sports to satisfy a full-time extra station.

The talk radio format very much remains a minority one in
the UK so perhaps most keenly anticipated of the new stations was the launch of
talkRADIO (I'm carefully typing those lower and upper case characters!). Less
news agenda driven than 5 Live or LBC - though this was tested on day two with
the bombings in Brussels - it benefits from an experienced and lively line-up:
Paul Ross (the only one from the original Talk Radio UK), Julia Hartley-Brewer,
Jon Holmes, Sam Delaney, Jonny Gould and Iain Lee on weekdays. talkRADIO posted
this video of the station launch.

Unfortunately, at least for those of us listening online,
the sound quality on day one was appalling; it had marginally improved the
following day.

David Lloyd did a quick editing job to put this montage
together.

Judging by the listener reaction online there was much love
in particular, and quite rightly so, for Jon Holmes and Iain Lee. Both started
by knocking their former employers and their radio opposition - Holmes had only
appeared on Radio X the day before whilst Lee had, of course, been dropped by
3CR last year - but they were asked to rein this in on day two, mind you both mentioned
this management talking-too on air.

The only other observation is the lack of callers; the
weekday shows, apart from Iain's, appear to be in single figures over a 3 or 4
hour show. Is the 0844 number putting people off (they do call back) or is it a
production decision?

There was an exemplary lead-in to the launch (is that
re-launch?) of Virgin Radio which went live on 30 March: "a broadcast
legend returns". Online they had a fully operational website before the
D-Day with presenter Q&As, press releases, schedules and playlists all
supported by Twitter and Facebook. They then pushed the boat out, in fact
pushed the train out - the Virgin Radio
Star travelling from Manchester to London - as part of a launch day hoopla, all produced
by TBI Media. This provided great publicity but I'm not sure it contributes
much to the listening experience, "it's moving" we were excitedly told.
Let's hope they continue to support new talent such as Gavin James who provided
the live opening track, his take on Bowie's Changes.

Here are those opening moments:

Virgin's Programme Director Liam Thompson spoke about the
station's audience: "We feel that there is an opportunity amongst
those who feel too old for BBC Radio 1, but not old enough for BBC Radio 2. Our
audience will be music-lovers who want to hear great new music, as well as the
classics".

Whilst there are elements of its previous incarnation in the
new station , unlike its Virgin 1215 predecessor - predominantly aimed at the male
guitar rock lover - Virgin offers "classic and contemporary pop and rock
hits" for a 25-44 year old audience. It remains to be seen how it will
fare against the Absolute stations that took over from Virgin in 2008.

From the evidence of day one Virgin Radio, like its new
Wireless Group stable mates, suffered from some technical issues, and that's
not just the expected drop-outs during the train journey. It's almost as if
they're trying to recreate the same reception conditions of the old AM service.
I've read of audio quality complaints about both DAB and online steaming.
Hopefully these will be fully addressed quickly before people switch elsewhere.
Having said that it seemed fine to me over here in France via Radioplayer.

I should also name check the other new station to launch on
D2, Premier Praise, the Christian music station that went to air on Easter
Sunday. Unfortunately due to a combination of the shift to summertime and a
late night I missed the station switch-on, though I did catch part of Steve
Fanstone's show during the day.

And finally the other station launch that was part of the
Sound Digital package was British Muslim Radio, now rebranded as Awesome Radio.
Whilst an audio stream has been up and running since 29 February the website
offers no clues as schedule or presenters and its only tweeted six times and
has just 36 Facebook followers. Listeners are invited to submit their CVs to
become part of the Awesome team.

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About Me

Hailing originally from Hull and spending most of my life in East Yorkshire I'm now resident in France.
For over 30 years I've been interested in radio, tv and film and have an archive of off-air recordings and radio-related material.
I'm not the Andy Walmsley that designs sets or produces tv programmes.
Professionally I worked in Local Government.
My wife Val works for Beaux Villages Immobilier.